Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Sept. 8

Do you have any summer veggies left? This last heat spike finished off a lot of crops, thanks to at least three consecutive triple-digit days. But relief from the heat looks like it’s on the way.

(Anything that survived may make it for several weeks more.)

According to the National Weather Service, afternoon high temperatures will return to the low 90s or even 80s by Tuesday, Sept. 9. The rest of the week looks comfortably normal with Sacramento highs hovering around 90 degrees and overnight lows about 60; that’s typical for these last weeks of summer.

It’s also ideal weather for planting cool-season vegetables, flowers and seeds. It’s a good time to transplant perennials and shrubs, too. In fact, the rest of the month kicks off fall planting season.

September typically is on the milder side, averaging highs of 87 degrees in Sacramento. That makes it excellent for planting – whether it’s veggie seeds or whole trees. Warm soil makes for rapid root development.

Just make sure to keep seeds and transplants comfortably moist. Don’t let them dry out.

* Harvest tomatoes, peppers, squash, melons and eggplant.

* Compost annuals and vegetable crops that have finished producing.

* Cultivate and add compost to the soil to replenish its nutrients for fall and winter vegetables and flowers.

* Fertilize deciduous fruit trees.

* Plant onions, lettuce, peas, radishes, turnips, beets, carrots, bok choy, spinach and potatoes directly into the vegetable beds.

* Transplant cabbage, broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower as well as lettuce seedlings.

* Sow seeds of California poppies, clarkia and African daisies.

* Transplant cool-weather annuals such as pansies, violas, fairy primroses, calendulas, stocks and snapdragons.

* Divide and replant bulbs, rhizomes and perennials.

* Dig up and divide daylilies as they complete their bloom cycle.

* Divide and transplant peonies that have become overcrowded. Replant with “eyes” about an inch below the soil surface.